Fewer devout Jews

The number of American Jews who consider themselves religiously observant has dropped by more than 20 percent over the last two decades, as the share of Jews who consider themselves secular has risen.

The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey found that around 3.4 million American Jews call themselves religious – out of a general Jewish population of about 5.4 million.

Jews are more likely to be secular than Americans in general, researchers said.

They attribute the trend to the high rate of intermarriage and “disaffection from Judaism” in the United States.